Bilingual Lexicography: Computer-Aided Editing

Bilingual dictionaries present special difficulties for the lexicographer who is determined to employ the computer to facilitate his editorial work. In a sense, these dictionaries include evdrything contained in a normal monolingual edition and a good deal more. The singlelanguage definition dictionary is consulted as the authority on orthography, pronunciation and stress-pattern, grammar, level of formality, field of application, definitions, examples, usage and etymology. A bilingual dictionary which purports to be more than a pocket edition will treat all of these with the exception of etymology, which is not normally in the domain of the translator. In addition, it will devote itself to providing accurate translations, which necessarily presuppose an intimate acquaintance with the correct definitions in both languages. Such a dictionary• is a far cry from its mediaeval ancestor, the two-language glossary, which was usually a one-way device furnishing equivalent forms for simple words and expressions in the opposite language. The modern bilingual dictionary is usually two-way, each section constituting a complete dictionary in its own right and contrived to cater for a variety of translation requirements. Yet the two sections are inextric• ably linked by an intricate network of translations and cross-references which guide the consulter and ensure that he does not falter when semantic equivalence fails to overlap smoothly. Since semantic equivalence is the important basic feature of bilingual dictionaries, deviations from the normal pattern will require special treatment. In closely related languages, like French and English, numerous pairs of words of common origin are only slightly, if at all, altered in their modern form (e.g. Eng. versatile/ Fr. versatile). But the disparate development of two modes of expression in different cultural and historical environments has left a residue of such word pairs whose only similarity is in fact the visual image of the sign. Their definitions are often very remote from each other. It is yet another task of bilingual lexicography to distinguish clearly between the meanings of these deceptive cognates or "faux amis "